I'll Be Gone

I will be away from La Crosse for the next 6 or 7 days and may not be able to respond to you while on the road. I'll try to get back to anyone who e-mails or calls as soon as I return.
Byron

Extreme Photoshop Retouching

Here is a YouTube video of an extreme makeover done in Photoshop. This is just one of a gazillion available. I am reluctant to post any of them because of some may object to the concept and others including me have a problem with the concept of designating beauty and ugliness. Before you get you knickers in a twist please understand that the "before" in this video is NOT a person but a piece of sculpture. I very much hope that no one will be offended, but I do want to show what can be done at the extremes. Please read these comments by the artist in response to some carping criticism if you are uncomfortable:

I never meant to hurt anyone with this work. I just wanted to know how young I could make that old lady look using photoshop tools. By the way, that woman is not a real person. That is a sculpture made by Angela Talbot, a very talented artist that has a beautiful personality. I think that the real beauty is inside us all, in our soul. And that beauty can be cultivated by any one of us. It's just a matter of wanting. Thanks for watching! :)

Byron

Our Yurt

For anyone who is interested here are some recent phots of our yurt. We have finally completed furnishing it. The table in the center of the yurt and the chest on the left side back wall were hand made from wood milled from a cherry tree harvested on the property. We hope to be able to entertain members of the WWIG at our land in Crawford County later this summer.
Byron

Digital Challenge: Portrait 4

Theresa Smerud kindly sent this image to be used as an exercise in retouching. This very pleasant looking gentleman's appearance is marred by an obvious dental flaw. I suspect that most subjects with a similar problem would attempt to keep their mouth closed which would eliminate his smile which is wonderful and reveals much about his personality. For some doing the dental repair in Photoshop may be a piece-of-cake, but I don't think that I am going to be able to bring it off. On the other hand it will be interesting to try.

Theresa sent a JPG and I cropped away a great deal of the original so that the resulting image is a fairly small file but I think that it will be adaquate for this exercise.
Byron
Byron

Digital Challenge: Portrait 3

This woman is the owner of a small shop located in a alley made up of artsy businesses in Madrid NM. She reluctantly allowed me to take a few photos and because we were already at the limit of her tolerance I didn' think that I could get away with asking her to move into a location that wouldn't have such awful lighting conditions. This image may be beyond the magical powers of Photoshop but I included it because if offers an opportunity to see what one can do with very advanced wrinkles.
Byron

Internet Courtesy

This photo was taken in our garden several years ago by my son Charles Annis and back in my avid gardening days I used it a lot in various presentations. In my opinion what makes this a great shot the fact that Charlie was exactly in the right place at the right time. See Rule # 1 of Photography: Always have your camera with you! Another interesting aspect of the picture is this. If you look carefully just above the giant garden rat (that would be the deer for the nature lovers among you) you can see a thin white horizontal line. That is my electric deer fence. Really effective, isn't it? All of this is beside the point. Here is the point:  Years ago I submitted this image to a website called Subdivision Wildlife. Yesterday I received this e-mail message--

Byron, 
I am working on a website for an electronic deer repellant. (deershieldtech.com)
Would you allow us to use this image on our site and in some of our promotional material?
Thank you,
Rick

Here is my reply--

> Yes you may, and thank you for the courtesy of asking! I hope that you will give credit to the photographer who is my son Charles Annis. He did a great job getting this capture.

This is the way things should work when decent  people deal with each other in the electronic commons.

Byron

Digital Challenge: Portrait 2

I took this photograph of Dr. John Hayden at our last meeting and he very graciously gave me permission to use it for this months exercise in retouching. Dr. Hayden had a long and distinguished career as an Orthopedic Surgeon at the Gundersen Clinic and is an accomplished photographer. He is 88 years old and his skin certainly is that of a substantially younger man. Nonetheless, there are some blemishes that can be eliminated and wrinkles lessened. I'm not one to give retouching advice, but I will caution those who haven't done this sort of work, resist the temptation to overdo. This is especially true with the wrinkles.

I'll make separate entries for the remaining 2 images tomorrow and send the whole packet of 4 JPGs tomorrow by e-mail.
Byron

The Digital Challenge: Portrait 1

This is a stunningly beautiful woman who had the misfortune to be photographed by someone with no discernible talent for glamour or even portrait photography (me, if you must know). I selected this image because it begs for treatment of the eyes, especially the left, and the camera (? lens) introduced distortion of her facial proportions.
Byron

July 6, 2011 Meeting: 1st Post

The next meeting of the WWIG will take place on July 6th. This is the first of what will likely be several posts about the meeting. There are 2 items I want to address in this entry.

TOPIC OF THE MONTH-- If you were at the June meeting you know that the Topic (or, more appropriately, the assignment) is to take a photo of a stranger. It is realized that for many of us this  is onorous and offputting-- that, of course, is why I chose it. I, personally, dread the prospect, but then again I really didn't want to undergo a colonoscopy. I requested the procedure because the potential benefit far outweighed the unpleasantness. Likewise, some of the most treasured and meaningful images in my portfolio are of people who were strangers to me when I made the capture. I've not always done a good job of asking permission, but I am trying to make it a practice to politely approach people and with sincerity engage them in conversation before taking the shot; and to respect their wishes if they object.

If, of course, you are really put off by photographing a stranger, submit a photo of any person that you feel has some special quality.

THE DIGITAL CHALLENGE-- I have selected from my files 3 images that are uploaded here and will upload one that Theresa Smerud gave me. Because I want to get the ball rolling this evening I'm posting them now, but because the hour is late I won't make any comments about the images at this time but will over the next couple of days. The challenge is to retouch any one or more of the portraits in any way that you feel appropriate.

Considerably more information about these images will follow, but for now I do want you to know that these are all JPGs and the only alteration done has been cropping. RAW files are available for the first 3 images.

Take a look and see what you think. I would very much appreciate any comments or questions that you have.
Byron

Ridgetop Photography

I am pleased to call your attention to a new addition to the list of Blogs and Websites About Photography and Digital Imaging in the right hand column: WWIG Maria Barry's Ridgetop Photography.  This blog should serve the needs of all of our members and I am glad that Maria has referred us to her interesting commercial venture and I wish her every success in it.
Byron

New Header

Usually we keep the header for the entire month between meetings. At our June meeting we had so many wonderful images submitted for both the Topic of the Month (Barns) and the Digital Challenge that I decided to use  one from each for half the interval instead. This lovely photograph was taken during the last winter just outside of the city of La Crosse by John Zoerb. Older barns, especially those abutting and mingling with encroaching urban development, are everywhere in this part of the country unused and deteriorating. This image evokes a sense of sadness and loss-- a part of our rural landscape and culture will be gone with the barns. Thank you John!
Byron

Follow up WWIG June Meeting

I want to thank everyone who helped to make last evening's meeting of the WWIG such a rousing sucess. I think that we all thoroughly enjoyed Roger Grant's very informative presentation and his practicle recommendations about portrait photography. The number of Topic of the Month and Digital Challenge submissions was substantially greater than in the past and the  images show great imagination and photographic skill. The discussion throughout the evening was lively.

The new header photo of this blog was Jim Terman's response to the Digital Challenge. It was enthusiastically received by the group. Someone remarked how it resembles the Sydney Opera House and I agree. John Zoerb submitted several barn images and I will be posting in the header a lovely winter barn photo in a couple of weeks.

The next digital challenge will be distributed soon. It will be a portrait, preferably of someone whose face shows the ravages of time and the challenge will be an exercise in retouching.

The next Topic of the Month will be a difficult one-- at least for me. Members are being asked to photograph a stranger. The goal is not so much to obtain a great photograph-- although there would be nothing wrong with that-- but to encourage members to approach and photograph strangers. Someone asked if we are requiring that permission be obtained. This is up to the photographer. I realize that meeting and greeting strangers and asking them for a photo-op can be excruciating (I use this word because this is how the process feels to me) and if a member just can't do it then they can and should do an alternative like an old photograph in their portfolio or a picture of a friend or family member.

John Zoerb would like to have the prints for the La Crosse Public Library display by the end of the 3rd week of July. Remember there is no limit to size and the prints have to be either matted or framed. We hope to have work from most of not all of our members to demonstrate to the community the creative diversity of our group as well as the rather high level of accomplishment of the members. If anyone needs a good printer to use or help making prints I am most happy to help out.
Byron